Ericsson and Extreme Networks Form Strategic Alliance to Target Multi-Billion Dollar Voice-Data Convergence Market - Extreme Networks' Summit and BlackDiamond network switches - Company Business and Marketing

Cambridge Telcom Report, Nov 15, 1999

Extreme Networks, Inc., and Ericsson have formed a multi-faceted strategic alliance to provide networking solutions for Enterprise customers and Network Service Providers.

The alliance will enable customers to exploit voice, video and data converged networks while maintaining the reliability and business voice quality that they have come to expect in the classic telecommunications world. Customers will reap the benefits of Extreme Networks' high performance, multi-layer network switching solutions designed for the Internet Economy, along with Ericsson's renowned expertise in classic and IP-based telephony.

Per the agreement, Ericsson will resell Extreme Networks' award-winning Summit and BlackDiamond switching solutions into their worldwide voice-data customer base. One of the first steps of the alliance will be to integrate Extreme Networks' high speed Layer 3 and Layer 4 Ethernet technology into Ericsson's next generation enterprise fixed/mobile office concept. In addition, the alliance will focus on Ericsson's Carrier and ISP customers by extending the end-to end Quality-of Service (QoS) offering available today for IP based networks. Extreme Networks' QoS, and policy server technology, will enhance Ericsson's overall solutions for end-to end policy based network infrastructure, by specifically supporting features optimized for application deployment such as server load balancing and web cache redirection.

"This strategic alliance provides our customers with a competitive advantage by enabling them to increase their productivity by implementing emerging IP telephony services and business applications," said Lars Svensson, vice president and general manager of the Enterprise Systems Business Unit of Ericsson. "Features, such as web-based Call Centers, unified messaging, and e-commerce solutions, all of which are currently addressed in Ericsson's Next Call Center, One Box and the recently launched customer interaction application, UpFront Support, will complement the converged network."

According to recent Gartner Group/Dataquest market analysis, the worldwide enterprise convergence networking market consisting of networking communication equipment, remote LAN and Internet access and voice communication equipment is projected to grow to a business value of $ 79 Billion US in 2000.

"Selecting the worldwide leader in Layer 3 and Layer 4 switching technology allows us to lead the deployment of the next generation fixed/mobile enterprise office, and deliver on our commitment to provide a single converged network for telephony, data and video. Ericsson is very committed to providing business voice quality and the high level of reliability on IP converged backbones that exist in today's circuit switched environment," added Svensson.

"Our ability to provide a scalable and easy to implement approach to building QoS-based networks uniquely positions us to work with Ericsson and to jointly provide their 45,000 customers with converged network solutions," said Gordon Stitt, CEO and president of Extreme Networks. "The voice-data networks that companies are building today must be able to handle the increased traffic demands and applications of today's all encompassing Internet Economy. Extreme Networks leads in offering high performance, policy-based data switching solutions that can be easily integrated with Ericsson's industry leading, service provider and enterprise networks."

All existing and future investments in Ericsson's leading MD110 PBX technology will be protected by integrating Extreme Networks' leading Layer 3 and Layer 4 switching technology into the recently launched "MD110 on the Net" evolution path for medium to large corporations. Ericsson's fully scalable IP telephony based fixed/mobile communication solution will allow MD110 and Business Phone customers to connect traditional PBX extensions, and newly developed IP appliances, to a packetized IP based end-to-end infrastructure, while continuing to maintain the high levels of reliability and robustness found in traditional telecommunications environments.

By working with Extreme Networks, Ericsson enhances its current data communications product portfolio and enables its customers to easily deploy business-class, multimedia, converged networks that incorporate a wide range of product solutions. Such solutions include, Frame Relay switches, ATM switches, high end and low end routers, remote access servers, WLAN base stations and Extreme Networks' application aware Layer 3 and Layer 4 LAN switches with end-to-end QoS.

The alliance also enables small and medium-sized enterprises to now have an opportunity to leverage converged networks. Through the agreement, Ericsson can combine its award-winning IP-PBX Webswitch with Extreme Networks' market leading Summit stackable switching systems, to create a single, simplified communication solution ideal for small and mid-size standalone and remote offices.

Since its founding in 1996, Extreme Networks has rapidly become a market leader for network solutions that offer users scalability, simplicity and Quality of Service. All Extreme Networks switching solutions are built on a common architecture. This unique approach enables the company to offer an elegantly simple, yet high-performance network architecture that requires less maintenance and operating costs. By combining Ethernet and IP with wire-speed Layer 3 switching, Extreme Networks provides the scalability customers need to build networks that can handle future growth. And, the company's new Policy Management System allows users to deploy policy networking to protect network bandwidth for mission critical applications and give precedence to revenue generating traffic, without complexity.